The heart of Robert Heindel's art is dance. He said, "I reflect what a lot of people see." Raised in Toledo, Ohio in, as he mentioned, a middle class environment, he had middle class ideas until he saw Nureyev dance with Fonteyn. It changed his life for ever. At that moment he knew he had to paint the dance.
Robert Heindel's work shows the power, strength and grace of dancers. He exposed their inner soul by focusing on the preparation not the finished performance. He attempted to capture the intense physical exertion as each dancer strives for perfection as an individual as well as part of the group. At first, he had to beg to be allowed into the rehearsals. Almost four decades later, companies called to ask him to observe. While alive, Robert visited with performance companies in Dallas, Houston, San Francisco, Kansas City and Cincinnati as well as with The American Ballet. In his later years, his focus led him to The Royal Ballet, The Monte Carlo Ballet, The Scottish Ballet and The Japanese Ballet. Even Andrew Lloyd Webber's casts of Cats and Phantom of the Opera ultimately became his subjects.
Mr. Heindel said that two years of work goes into a major show. He would join the company every three to four months to observe, to learn. Ballet is beautiful, because of the movement, he commented. But because he was able to capture such movement, his work often looks unfinished. He feels that the observer's participation in the image completes his work. "This is the final element,"Heindel stated with authority!
In the mid-1990's Robert Heindel became somewhat of a modern day Degas. Heindel rejected this notion, a bit, but he became so completely absorbed in dance that he even choreographed his own production. The artist said of his subject, "Dancers have a very strong sense of themselves. They seem to dominate their space. I don't know if they are born with this or they learn it. That makes them easy subjects to paint.!"
Robert Heindel had the ability to capture the essence of dance on canvas. When not traveling, he and his wife Rose resided on the East Coast. Mr. Heindel was the gentlest, most self-deprecating of men. Lean and loose-limbed, he was friendly and relaxed, not impressed with his success or his list of collectors. This includes Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, the Crown Prince of Japan, Princesses Diana and Margaret and Star Wars creator, George Lucas. Robert Heindel depicts the motion, the speed, the power, the color, the drama that is dance!
GALLERY M is pleased to exclusively represent Robert Heindel in Colorado, the Rocky Mountain Region and feature his body of works online.
